DEN, THE 4TH KING OF EGYPT'S 1ST DYNASTY.
While an early King, Den, who's name means "Horus Who
Strikes" (Udimu), is perhaps better attested than some. We
believe he served as the 4th King of Egypt's 1st Dynasty. He
may have come to the throne at an early age, with his
mother, Merneith, acting as regent.
He left a number of labels and inscriptions on stone vases
which cite the king, including events during his reign. We
have found seals impressions and inscriptions in tombs 3035,
3036, 3038, 3504, 3506, 3507, X and a lower status tomb at
Saqqara, from a tomb at Abu Rowash and of course, from King
Den's own Tomb at Saqqara.
His throne name has been identified as Semti which helps us
identify him as a king in the Abydos King list named
Hesepti. He is believed to have been the first king to adopt
a nsw-bity (King of Upper and Lower Egypt) name, which was
Khasty. According to Manetho, he had a reign of some 20
years. However, he may have celebrated a Sed-festival,
which usually occurred in the 30 year of rule, and some
Egyptologists believe he may have reigned for as long as 50
years.
Though the reigns of Den's processor and successor seemed to
have been troubled, the reign of Den was apparently a
glorious and prosperous one. Yet beyond this prosperity,
like Horus Djer before him, Den left behind an intellectual
reputation. We believe that the spells found in the later
funerary manual called the Book of the Dead was attributed
to his time, as well as medical formulae that were preserved
in New Kingdom papyri.
Den Apparently limited the power of high officials which had
previously been allowed to grow dangerously strong during
the reign of his predecessor. Such centralization always
seems to have been key to a successful royal reign. However,
we believe he also pursued a policy of conciliation with
northern Egypt, probably creating a post of "chancellor of
the King of Lower Egypt:, filled by a man named Hemaka.
Hemaka is a well known figure of this time who built an
important tomb at Saqqara. The contents of this tomb provide
us with our most comprehensive collection of 1st Dynasty
funerary equipment. It is also from this tomb that we find
possible evidence for Den's Sed-festival (along with a label
found at Abydos, depicting the earliest known king wearing
the double crown of Egypt).
Soon, however, it appears that Den turned his focus to
military affairs. An interesting ivory label found at Abydos
that was inscribed for Den records, "The time of the
smitting of the East". It shows Den in the classic pharaonic
posture, with his mace raised above his head about to club a
foreign chieftain. This seems to correlate with the "Smiting
of the Troglodytes" recorded on the Palermo stone.
We believe these campaigns included an incursion into the
"Asiatic" (Palestine) territories, during his first year,
where he bought back a harem of female prisoners. He also
seems to have made a military expedition into the Sinai to
deal with a (so called) Bedouin problem.
Den's tomb, notably excavated by Petrie in 1900 after having
earlier been excavated by Emile Amelineau, has been
identified as Tomb T at Abydos. Significantly, this tomb was
the first we know of to utilized a significant amounts of
granite in its construction. This consists of slabs of red
and black granite from Aswan that was used to pave the
burial chamber. In many ways, the tomb was one of the most
impressive so far built in Egypt, and certainly at Abydos,
with a proper stairway and a massive burial chamber that was
once roofed with wood, perhaps retrieved during his Eastern
military campaign(s).
The stairway, the first we find in an Egyptian tomb, was
sealed with a wooden door, and just before the burial
chamber was a portcullis barrier to block grave robbers. A
small room to the south-west, with its own small stairway,
may have been an early serdab, which was a chamber built to
hold statues of the deceased. A German team who excavated
the ruins (after a number of earlier excavations) revealed
that grave goods or fragments included pots with seal
impressions, stone vessels, inscribed labels and other
carved objects in ivory and ebony, as well as inlays from
boxes and furniture. A long side chamber probably held jars
of wine. Near the tomb were found 136 subsidiary burials.
However, one of his queens was probably buried at Giza, and
her tomb is larger than that of her husband's. It also
included graves of sacrificed servants around it, but
unfortunately, her name is not know.
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Den (or Dewen) was the fourth Egyptian king of the First
dynasty[2] or fifth if Narmer is included. He was the son of
Queen Merneith.[3] Early Egyptian records mention battles
against Bedouin tribes in the Sinai during his reign. He was
the first[citation needed] to use the title King of the Two
Lands, and the first depicted as wearing the double crowns
(red and white). The floor of his tomb in Umm el-Qa'ab at
Abydos is made of red and black granite, the first time in
Egypt this hard stone was used as a building material.[4]
During his long reign he established many of the patterns of
court ritual and royalty used by later pharaohs and was held
in high regard by his immediate successors.
Family
Den's wives were Seshemetka, Semat, Serethor and possibly
Qaineit[6]; their
names are found at Abydos. It is possible that Qaineit was
brought back to
Egypt as a captive by Den or that she was a daughter of a
foreign ruler [7]. It
is thought that Den and Seshemetka's son may have been
Anedjib, Den's
successor.[8]
Length of reign
According to a study of the Palermo Stone, Den had a reign
of at least "32
complete or partial years."[9] He appears to have ascended
the throne as a
child, and the reign of his mother Merneith (possibly as
pharaoh) was likely a
regency until he was of age.[10] He lived long enough to
have enjoyed a second
Sed festival, suggesting a reign of at least 33 or 34
years.[11] Consequently
his reign is the best attested from the period,[11] and
activities of his reign
are preserved in register L of Cairo Fragment 5 while his
later years are
recorded on register III of the Palermo Stone.[12]
Developments and events during his reign
Den is the first pharaoh to use the title nj-sw.t-bj.t
meaning literally "he of
the sedge and the bee" (and represented by equivalent
hieroglyphic characters)
which is figuratively translated as "King of the Two Lands",
the sedge and the
bee being the symbols for Upper and Lower Egypt.[13] Though
the kingdom had
been unified since the time of Narmer from the previous
dynasty, it is thought
that this new title represented a further development of the
ideology of divine
kingship.[11]
There is extensive evidence that Den conducted several
campaigns against the
people bordering the north-eastern part of his kingdom. An
ivory label from
Abydos depicts Den "at the time of the smiting of the east"
(thought to be
Sinai), which may also be referred to on the Palermo Stone
as an event labeled
the "Smiting of the Troglodytes" which happened the second
year of an
unidentified king.[14] The Palermo Stone records at least
two of his campaigns
against frontier peoples, and over 70 examples of imported
ware from the
Palestinian region suggest sustained contact with this
region over the course
of his reign.[15]
His Horus name Hor Den means "Horus who strikes."[16] and it
may have been
chosen to reflect his preoccupation with establishing the
frontiers of his
kingdom.[15]
The Palermo Stone records other key events, including a
census in the fourth
year of his reign,[11] the dedication of ritual objects to
various shrines and
the running of the Apis bull in the twelfth year of his
reign.[15]
Images of the feline goddess Mafdet are prominent during his
reign, which may
mean that the goddess was seen as a protector of the royal
family during this
time.[15]
There was significant growth in the wealth and importance of
court officials
during Den's time on the throne. The tomb of his chancellor
Hemaka is larger
than the king's own tomb, and for years was mistakenly
thought as belonging to
Den.[17] This tomb, located at Saqqara contained many grave
goods from this
era, including an inlaid gaming disk and the earliest
surviving papyrus
document.[18] The wealth of goods from this tomb as well as
those of other
officials from this time are thought to reflect the relative
prosperity of
Den's reign.
Tomb
Den was interred within a tomb ("Tomb T") in the Umm el-
Qa'ab area of Abydos,
which is associated with other first dynasty kings.[19] Tomb
T is among the
largest and most finely-built of the tombs in this area, and
is the first to
feature a staircase and a floor made of granite.[20]
His was the first tomb to have a flight of stairs leading to
it, those of
earlier pharaohs being filled directly above from their
roofs. It is possible
that the tomb may have used as a storehouse for surplus
produce during the
king's lifetime, while also making it easier to add grave
goods for later use
in the afterlife by Den.[21]
Tomb T is also the first tomb to include architectural
elements made of stone
rather than mud-brick.[22] In the original layout for the
tomb, a wooden door
was located about half-way up the staircase, and a
portcullis placed in front
of the burial chamber, designed to keep out tomb
robbers.[23] The floor of the
tomb was paved in red and black granite from Aswan, the
first architectural use
of such hard stone on a large scale.
Twenty labels made of ivory and ebony were found in his
tomb, 18 of them found
by Flinders Petrie in the spoil heaps left by the less
systematic archaeologist
Émile Amélineau[24] Among these labels are the earliest-
known depictions of a
pharaoh wearing the double-crown of Egypt, as well as
running between ritual
stele as part of the Sed festival.[25]
Tomb T is surrounded by the burials of 136 men and women[26]
who were buried at
the same time as the king. Thought to be the king's
retainers, an examination
of some of the skeletons suggests they were strangled,
making this an example
of human sacrifice that was common with the pharaohs of this
dynasty, but which
seems to have ceased by its conclusion, with shabtis taking
the place of actual
people to aid the pharaohs with the work expected of them in
the afterlife.[27] - Wikipedia
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